Youth Football Plays Offense

How many youth football plays should I have?

Author: Jim Oddo

This has actually become a heated topic among youth football coaches in recent years. I have seen too many coaches try to install an NFL size playbook with seven-year old kids. On the other side, I have seen many rookie coaches go into a game with only three or four plays.

There has been some nonsense about the proper number of plays should be based on the age of your players. This means if you are coaching nine-year olds, you should have no more than nine plays. This is insane logic and I wonder where one comes up with something so silly. The age of the players, have a minimal reason on the amount of plays you will be installing.

The skill level of your team, experience of the players and coaches experience all have some bearing on how many plays you should install. If you are coaching an “A” level team with many skilled or returning players, you can have a larger playbook than if you are coaching a “B” Team of all first year players. It is insane to make a statement that because the ages are the same of the two previous examples that they should have the same size playbook.

I will say it is important to make sure that each base play is put in first, and once perfected by the team feel free to add more plays. Please check out any of my playbooks for complete details.

How often should I practice my plays?

Author: Jim Oddo

This question is one of the most asked by rookie coaches. Most rookie coaches spend far too much time just running plays, and usually they are running them wrong. These young coaches ignore the fundamentals of teaching the proper stance, blocking technique and tackling form. There is no excuse for skipping the fundamentals, especially just to run plays.

I do believe you need to have many repetitions of the playbook prior to the first game. I have read some crazy books that recommend something like 1200 repetitions in prior to the first game. Coaches, this is not the NFL, these are little kids. Please do not believe this garbage.

Let us put this ridiculous claim in perspective by using a little math. If you could run a play in one minute (trust me you cannot) that would equate to 1200 minutes or 20 hours. This means 20 hours of repetition per play would be needed. In July after the tryouts and you are the “master of your domain”, you might be lucky to get two or three weeks of practice before your first game. Let us be generous and say there is three weeks of practice time available. You decide to practice six days a week (most teams go five days) for two hours per practice. This leaves your team a total of 12 hours of practice per week. Now we will take the 12 hours of practice per week and multiply this by our three weeks of practice before game one giving us a grand 36 total hours of practice before the first game.

With 36 total hours, if you are supposed to practice 20 hours per play, you can see how preposterous this claim is. I did not even take off time for

• Water breaks
• Team exercises
• Stations
• FUNDAMENTALS

 

As you can see this is just a ridiculous claim to try to have this many repetitions on each play.

I think as a coach you need to make sure when you run the plays that they are run prefect. Once you get a play down it is Ok to add another play. I just make sure that the primary plays are put in early so they can get the most repetitions.

The Proper Three Point Stance

Author: Jim Oddo

Far too many coaches do not spend enough time making sure all players on their youth football team can get into a proper three-point stance. In youth football, all players will probably play on the offensive or defensive line at some point during the season.

I believe even the quarterbacks and running backs need to know how to get into a proper three-point stance. You may need to use these players on special teams (like PAT) so they need to know how to go down, get set and explode out of the proper stance.

I am amazed to see many coaches refuse to spend the proper time teaching the players a proper stance. This is unforgivable, especially with the younger players. I believe every single kid, that listens and is willing to learn can be taught the proper three-point stance.

Please review the portion on the website where I give a complete description, with diagrams, on how to teach youth football players the proper three-point stance

Pick your Youth Football Offense Based on your Talent

Author: Jim Oddo

I am amazed each year when I hear coaches discussing the up coming season and they are showing me the offense they are going to run. I wonder how they heck can they know what they are going to run when they have not seen the players this year. Unless you have an unusually large number of returning players, I do not see how a coach can decide on an offense to run.

Let me expand on my previous statement. A coach may like a Spread style offense or Tight Running offense and he may wish to go with a certain style, but he must wait and see what talent he will have.

You may love to pass the ball, but if Walter Payton shows up to your tryouts, you will have to change your way. The same goes for the three yards and a cloud of dust believers. If Peyton Manning shows up with Jerry Rice you would be nuts not to pass more.

I do believe that you can prefer a certain style or formation and then make sure you add the appropriate plays based on your talent, age and skill level.

A good example of this is the Single Wing offense. You can make this a power running offense or a full wide open pass attack offense. Most years you will settle for a combination of both, but there are many different plays you can add that is specific to your talent